Steve Bond is back with the final volume in this popular series. Unlike his previous three tomes, with their focus on air/rotorcraft, this book is uniquely dedicated to the personnel of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) themselves. Each chapter will concentrate on the memories of contributors who served in a range of roles, including those below the flight deck.
Accounts will focus on the everyday life upon an aircraft carrier as well as the extraordinary challenges faced during operations. There is a fascinating chapter covering exchange services with the RAF and other navies including the French and US; and also insight into the Indian navy’s experience with the Sea Hawk and Sea Harrier.
Within the previous volumes, we met some true characters and there is a chapter devoted to people’s memories of them. The closing section entitled ‘Thoughts’ sees contributors reflect on their FAA career with many deeply moving responses and discourses on the future of the service.
The book is heavily illustrated throughout in colour and black and white with personal photographs from the contributors, artwork and tongue-in-cheek cartoons for which the FAA is famous. Volume Four is the perfect conclusion to the ongoing post-war story of a truly astounding branch of the armed forces.
Steve Bond
Steve Bond is a life-long aviation enthusiast and historian, who has also been fortunate enough to spend most of his working life in the industry. He served in the Royal Air Force for 22 years as an aircraft Propulsion Technician, with tours on the Ha …
Mike Turner –
“Ah, those were the days! A great read.”
Tony Wilson –
“I’ve enjoyed all the books in the series and I found Vol.4 a particularly thought-provoking read. The more action events featured in the earlier books were lapped up by me. I never tire of reading about other flyers experiences and adventures. Interesting, too, to hear the stories from ground crews and maintainers. Vol.4 was more reflective in character and reminded me of a few more sober moments experienced in my eight years in the FAA.”
John Keenan –
“I did enjoy reading it and had a few laughs. It was interesting – no doubt. It was a bit of an odd feeling reading about incidents on the Carriers that I do recollect very well, even to this day. Sad at times. I found the article written by Arun Prakash Indian Navy, particularly interesting, more especially his description of the Russian replacement for the Sea Harrier! John Fords ‘In defence of Aircraft Carriers’ was ‘bang on’.”
Bob Turner –
“I love Vol.4!! I also suffered a flew flashbacks (all good!)”
Bob Crane –
Some books about the FAA include recollections by those both retired and still-serving, but these tend to be only by aircrew, and male at that, covering air operations. Then there’s Steve and Heather Bond’s FAA Boys series, in which personnel of various ranks, rates, branches and trades are the contributors, the result being a ‘treasure trove’ of wide-ranging experiences recounted by those who served at sea and/or on land. Vol 4 of FAA B&G is a fitting finale to the series – and it is very tempting to accord it as the best of the bunch…
…but then the first three volumes were superb. However, Vol 4 differs from these by not being aircraft-specific, allowing chapter content to be more varied (eg. ‘Characters’, ‘Courage’ and ‘With other Forces’) and to be more focused on people at work and at play. There is also more space for individual contributions and for more photographs, cartoons and paintings as well as for ‘Nutties’, which are short funny tales and anecdotes. Additionally, the last chapter, titled ‘Final Thoughts’, has allowed many contributors to reveal their feelings when looking back on their FAA service.
Steve and Heather have amassed well over one million words and thousands of photos during their work in bringing FAAB to fruition, all of which – it is planned – will be archived by the Navy Wings Heritage Centre. Overall, FAAB Vol 4 is a crowning, final ‘episode’ to the series, emphasising throughout the book the close-knit esprit de corps within the FAA family.